D'Amato's among best subs in town

They've been cranking up the coal-fired oven for nearly 45 years at D'Amato's. A beacon of crusty loaves with soft interiors in West Town. From focaccia to the more traditional torpedo loaf, they are one-of-a-kind.

"We bake with a brick oven and it runs on coal so our bread has a very unique taste to it. It's very crispy on the outside but soft like a pillow on the inside," said Rosanna D'Amato, part of the family that owns the legendary bakery.

And when you marry that Old World tradition with a host of Italian ingredients, you get some of the best subs in town.

"Our customers said 'why don't you guys make sandwiches, your bread is so good, it gives the sandwich an excellent flavor, you should do it,' and I'm like that's a really good idea. So me and my dad were talking and we decided let's do it," D'Amato said.

Good thing they listened to their customers. Talk about a no-brainer: just pile on the giardiniera and roasted red peppers, top them with provolone, mortadella, capicola, salami - plus shredded lettuce - and you've got an all-purpose Italian; load up the bottom layer with dense, baseball-sized meatballs, cover them in mozzarella or provolone and maybe some hot giardiniera, then ladle some of the rich gravy on the other half, and you've got a serious sub that's easy to share.

"Well it was actually my nonna's recipe and she passed it down to my mother and now my mother does it so she makes the sauce and meatballs here," she said.

It's not all mortadella and meatballs, by the way. They also make a solid veggie sub, plus focaccia sandwiches, three-footers and party trays.